The skin cure fad threatening Myanmar's elephants

Mount Kyaikhteeyoe, Myanmar

UNDER the shadow of Myanmar's famed "Golden Rock" punters haggle for the latest traditional medicine cure - slices of skin from the country's fast disappearing wild elephants sold for a few dollars a square inch.

A set of stairs winds behind one of the Buddhist country's most holy sites to a maze of shops openly selling everything from pieces of ivory and tiger's teeth to vials of bear oil.